In the early years of Canada, to the late 1800s, pigeon pie was one of the most common dishes on our tables. Made from the passenger pigeon, at the time the most common bird in North America that numbered in the billions, this popular dish provided readily available and hearty sustenance. Indeed, the Quebecois tourtière would have originally been made with passenger pigeon meat. However, because of over-hunting and habitat destruction the passenger pigeon was wiped out, and has now been extinct since 1914. The last bird, “Martha,” died in the Cincinnati Zoo.

FRANK‘s executive chef, Jeff Dueck, and our current artist-in-residence, Sara Angelucci, conceived of this pie with a number of things in mind: to create a vegetarian dish that spoke about the bird’s absence, with an emphasis on local (100 mile) ingredients and with elements that reference things the bird itself might have eaten, like seeds and nuts. As such, Chef Dueck has created a savoury dish using a variety of lentils, mushrooms, chestnuts, pine nuts and fresh herbs. The puff-pastry crust bears the mark of the absent bird; the cookie cutter, created by Angelucci, is an exact silhouette of a passenger pigeon that she photographed in the Royal Ontario Museum’s ornithology collection.

On Jan. 15, join Angelucci and AGO curator of Canadian Art, Andrew Hunter; writer and historian Matthew Brower; Mark Peck, Royal Ontario Museum Ornithology Technician; and Bridget Stutchbury, author and Professor of Ornithology at York University for a discussion about the extinction and endangerment of North American birds as well as art and society’s relationship with the natural environment. The talk will be followed by a three-course meal in FRANK, prepared by Chef Dueck and featuring the pigeon-less pie (recipe below). More info and bookings here.

Pigeon-less Pie by Chef Jeff Dueck, made in consultation with Sara Angelucci.